thankful#124: a good progress check today

I was hoping to get a good idea of where I'm at with my fitness today in the medical fund run. My plan was to go out as hard as I could and just see how long I could hold it - not exactly a smart race tactic, but it was merely to see exactly where I'm at right now in my training. I probably could have gone out harder than I did, but I'm glad I didn't because I'm not sure it would have been pretty. It was a beautiful day, but there was definitely a wind that hit us when we turned off of the first bridge and headed West. There was a small group in front of me that was clearly in way better shape than me, but I was hoping to at least hang on for a bit just to have someone to chase. I was also hoping that if anybody did pass me, I'd be able to hang on enough to keep them in my sights and chase them. The lead group pulled away about the same time the wind hit and I got a couple of mere flashes of them in the next couple of miles - by mile 4 they were nowhere in my sights. There was one guy who passed me around mile 3, but he too took off and wasn't anywhere close enough to chase. So I was on my own. I ran almost the entire 6.2 miles by myself. I'm not sure if I was chasing someone that it would have made much of a difference, but I like to think that with someone in my sights it would have kicked me just a little. I got a sideache right around mile 4 that slowed me down for about a half mile, but I was able to run through it and finish hard. Since I had nobody to chase I told myself that I just didn't want anyone else to pass me - and I was able to do that. I ended up getting a nice PR of about three and a half minutes for my 10k (44:42), so overall I'm happy with the race. I needed 11 miles for the day in my training, so I ran home and added 5 miles on - I was able to keep those miles at a decent pace even though my legs were pretty heavy. It was a good progress check for me and has left me pretty encouraged for the half at the end of April!